Wednesday, 5 June 2013

The Job Of A Freelance Copy Writer

By Michelle Howe


The writing of text for the primary purpose of marketing or advertising a certain opinion, product, business, idea or person is known as copy writing. The goal of this work is to persuade readers to follow a specific viewpoint or purchase an item that is advertised. Copy writers are the professionals who do this line of work. A person who is not employed by a specific business but does this work independently is called a freelance copy writer.

Such writers are given a range of tasks. Usually they are given work related to online ads, tagline development, web page content, television or radio scripts, social media, catalogs, brochures, direct mail pieces, billboards, press releases, sales letters, white papers and more. Basically, the professionals are primarily concerned with communication when it comes to marketing.

Content that is written for web pages is usually done to help the page get a higher ranking in search engine results. The practice is called organic search engine optimization, or SEO. It includes strategically repeating key words and phrases on sites. This text is written to be casual and normal to most readers.

Generally, those who work in this industry are employed by organizations, including ad agencies, cable providers, magazines, large stores, book publishers, ad departments, PR firms, broadcast providers, book publishers, newspapers, and ad agencies. The freelancer acts as an independent contractor when looking for work. These people may be hired to do a range of projects for varying clients and may even do some jobs for copy writing agencies that offer proof reading, social media, layout, development editing, writing, design, SEO, fact checking and other services.

Freelance or not, these professionals often work as a creative group. Many times they are paired up with art directors. The writer handles the verbal and textual content. They are expected to tell stories that will resonate with potential viewers and illicit a specific response emotionally. The art director would be more focused on visual communication and may do production oversight.

This job is similar to that of technical writers. Sometimes the two positions will overlap. Technically writing, broadly speaking, is concerned with informing its readers, not necessarily persuading. Therefore, copy writers may be assigned to drafting an ad to sell a car and technical writers would be given the job of writing the operating manual for said car.

The Internet has played a major role in this industry. Web content, emails and a lot of other online media requires these services. The web has made learning the skill, viewing work by others and conducting research easier to do. Likewise, it has become a venue for employed and potential employees to connect. Technology has also raised the amount of freelancing jobs available, thus making the field more competitive.

Copy writing is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing. Professionals in this field are usually involved with producing text that can be used for marketing and ad purposes. People may work for a company or agency. A freelance copy writer is an individual who contracts out his or her own jobs and essentially works independently. Internet popularity has led to an increase of opportunities in this field and made it quite competitive.




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